![\"Singapore](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shonak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Singapore-220.jpg\")
<\/a>Singapore Botanical Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Gardens by the Bay<\/p><\/div>\n
Of course there’s the famous Singapore Zoo, and in true Singapore style it has been designed fantastically well with the animals not enclosed but free to roam (well, not completely free thankfully) in a preserved area of rainforest. The zoo is huge and in a whole day we couldn’t see all the animals, and there were some unique ones like the White Tiger and Proboscis Monkey, as well as our old Orangutan friends..<\/p>\n
<\/a>Singapore Zoo<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Singapore Zoo<\/p><\/div>\n
Singapore is a shoppers paradise, at least it is if you have a bottomless bank account. There are malls everywhere, with so many upmarket brands that I felt slightly queasy just walking round after a few hours! Orchard road, a bit like London’s Oxford Street, is one of the major places that these brands make their presence and the sheer scale of the shopping opportunities is often just beyond comprehension.<\/p>\n
Aside from the big malls the city still retains its cultural areas. It was great to browse round the weird and wonderful goods in the expansive Chinatown, and the relatively-chaotic atmosphere in Little India felt like a dose of nostalgia from my experience in Delhi last year;\u00a0 all a far cry from all the modern and luxurious developments that Singapore often portrays to the world. Particularly beautiful was the “Budda Tooth” temple in Chinatown.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Buddha Tooth Temple<\/p><\/div>\n
Around the Marina Bay area is where some historic sights are located and also since 2008 the track of the Formula 1 Grand Prix. It was eerie to walk along the abandoned pit straight which would usually be packed with fans like myself and screaming race cars, instead just sitting gathering dust. While we were there a huge storm was brewing and sirens blaring to warn of immediate lightning strikes, and in retrospect it probably wasn’t a great idea to be roaming round in the middle of the area taking pictures!<\/p>\n
<\/a>Nishay doing his best to avoid getting struck by lightning<\/p><\/div>\n
Elsewhere around Marina Bay was the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel, an enormous boat shaped structure towering over the city. It looked big in pictures but in person it really was gigantic. A trip to the top treated us to a beautiful sunset vista of the Port of Singapore with hundreds of ships dotted around for as far as the eye could see, and the endless concrete mega-structures with a bird-eye view more historic sites such as the Raffles Landing Site and Merlion Statue.<\/p>\n
<\/a>View to the Port of Singapore from Marina Bay Sands<\/p><\/div>\n